Meteor Flashes Across Alabama Sky

A meteor visible from Oklahoma to the Florida panhandle flashed across the sky Tuesday night.

Bruce and Beverly Faulkner were turning into their driveway on Roberts Chapel Road near the Mississippi state line when they saw what looked like a big ball of fire.

"Before I could make the turn good, it was already gone," said Bruce Faulkner who described the meteor as the size of an SUV with an orange tail. "We thought maybe if it was ten feet lower it would have hit our barn or everything over there."

Dr. Alexander Ruzick of Portland State University says meteors aren't uncommon. "Somewhere around the world it occurs every hour," Ruzick told News Five in a telephone interview. "The thing is though that often times they are not seen. They occur over places were there are not any people looking up." Ruzick said clouds can also get in the way.

A picture taken in Southwest Oklahoma captured the meteor Tuesday night, and surveillance cameras in Ridgeland, Mississippi show the flash of light as it passed by.